5: Lin Feng

1 December, 2011.

An unknown super-black-technology only heard of in science fiction is sold to all corners of the planet by a mysterious company with no employees or registered data.

Virtual-Reality game cabins sold by the company oddly named "Little Goddess", sold at a mere 1000yuan equivalent, had been publicized a mere day before going on sale. However, despite such a late notice, the entire world had known of its existence immediately. Why?

Because of the ads.

A bunch of advertisements drowning the entire display screen and not going away? What choice does anyone have, but to pay attention and read it?

On the day of the release, despite much doubt and suspicion, over 3 million game cabins had been bought within the day.

"Spirit World".

The game cabin had come with a default game, already installed.

Information on the "Spirit World", found on the official website of "Little Goddess", had defined the game as an over 99.9% real, single-server, action-adventure-filled massive-multiplayer online role-playing-game. According to the official site, "Spirit World" takes you to the world created by the "soul" of the Earth- basically, it's Earth, but for souls. The more souls- that is, the more players- in the "Spirit World", the more powerful the world becomes, the more resources and benefits there will be.

As an odd departure from the usual MMORPGS, "Spirit World" does not have a character level system or experience points; instead, players gain near-omnipotent currency over time, generated by their soul, called "soul energy coins" or spirit coins. The various character attributes of a player character can be increased through a variety of methods, with spending spirit coins as the most simple and direct. As currency, it can also be used for other functions like buying, selling, and trading; however, this near-omnipotent currency can also be used to increase skill proficiency, create resources and equipment, enhance and upgrade skills and equipment, learn or even create new skills, modify your appearance, design a house, scan the entire map, create plants, creatures, humans, or even other races like elves or dwarves, and many more functions!

Aside from whatever "generated by the soul" means, only killing other creatures provide another source of spirit coins.

As for the plot?

The gods fell.

The motivation for all players and native creatures to grow stronger is... to transform their souls, attain divinity, and transcend mortal limits to become...

God! _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lin Feng opened his eyes.

Confused, he quickly sat up from... his bed?

What?

Shaking away his lingering drowsiness, Lin Feng immediately surveilled his surroundings and began circulating his spiritual power through his body, alert for any sign of hostile intent.

"Ah?!"

There was a problem!

He was not in a hospital! He was not in a ruin! He was not in his home!

"This... am I... in an illusion?!" Lin Feng could only foolishly mumble to himself out loud as he found himself... in his old college dorm room!

"Impossible...!" He could not help but shout out, and mumble once more, "Impossible! I'm supposed to be dead! The fake B-rank dungeon portal had burst out a horde of A-rank monsters and overrun the entire city, a mere C-rank Hunter like me could not have survived! Not to mention... that A-rank Titan had definitely stepped on me... I'm sure of it!" He nodded to himself at that, the extremely short duration of pain and humiliation from dying by being stepped on still crystal clear in his mind.

Still unsure of his current situation, he molded his spiritual power carefully and attempted a mind-clearing technique to cleanse himself of any possible mental attacks. Nothing changed.

It didn't make sense!

He still had his C-rank spiritual power! He still remembered all of his spirit skills! So how?! How was he in this weak and frail body, in his old college dorm room?!

If, not an illusion...

Time travel?

*click

Hearing a sudden sound behind him, Lin Feng spun around, instinctively readied a D-rank Burst Flare skill and was about to fire away before-

"Brother Lin! We're back from the convenience store! Are you awake, yet- ah, Brother Feng! Are you feeling alright now? We bought you a drink from the store!" A wild fatty appeared. Eh?

"Oh, Brother Lin is up! Hey, let's play a round of League now!" A thin monkey appeared. Eh?

The wild fatty shoved the drink- happy fat drink? What?- into his outstretched hand that was about to violently explode the two ignorant fellows just a second ago, causing him to stare at the drink while absentmindedly dispersing his skill.

Eh?_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It was the first day of December he woke up to. Year 2010, a little more than one year before the "Calamity Wave" hit the Earth, and more than four years before his future death.

It wasn't his world.

"Little Goddess presents [Spirit World]! A world where all weak little stray souls, like you humans, explore and adventure for power, fun, and profit!"

As he reads the screen-blocking advertisement with a dull gaze, he wonders if he just didn't notice the VR technology, apparently now existing, in his past life.

"Damn, this crazy ad! I was going to finally kill that Scarecrow! My 8-death streak would've been broken!" Skinny monkey rages on, blaming the sudden pop-up ad for his lack of ability.

"Is it a virus? I just restarted my phone, but it's still stuck." Fatty ponders, wondering how he could get back to the live broadcast of a certain female anchor.

"VR game cabin, VR helmet..." Lin Feng mutters to himself as he wonders if this "Spirit World" is important, in some way. He could not remember VR technology ever being possible before he died, and the day he reincarnates a flashy advertisement suddenly appears on every digital screen he could find. Wondering if he should spend his meager savings for a helmet to try, he clicks on the ad to see if he could get more information from it.

"'Soul'? 'Spiritual power'? Huh, that looks famili- no, this is! Soul! Spiritual power! How does this game know about the mysterious energy of the dungeons?!" At first, he mumbled to himself the words on the screen, slowly reading through the information available. Finding certain words ringing familiar to him, his mind had stuck onto them for awhile, until he remembered.

"Brother Lin, you've been muttering to yourself for awhile now? What's gotten you so excited, all of a sudden?" Fatty asked, looking over to Lin Feng in confusion. Fatty immediately thought about some bad thoughts at Lin Feng, 'This fake ad shouldn't have messed with his head, right?'

Catching himself, Lin Feng suddenly remembered there were two other fellows nearby. Fatty and Monkey were giving his some weird looks, and he needed to figure out what was going on with this game. Immediately thinking up a response, he coughed once and replied, "Nothing, I- I have to... to go to the library! Yes, I need to study!"

Flee!

He rushed out of the room to find an empty corner in the school library to continue studying the "Spirit World" information. As he left, however, his greater soul-enhanced senses picked up some words following after him.

"Ah? Study, at this time of the year?"

"How should I know? Brother Lin has been weird since he woke this morning."

"Weird? Do you think he is sick?"

"Sick? Yes, sick in the head!"

Gan*!

You are sick! Your sister is sick! Your family is sick! Who are you calling sick?!

Damn!

Lin Feng thought about turning around to teach those two a lesson, but reluctantly decided to forgive them. Huh, just some mortals, what could they possibly know?

'Humph! I, Lin Feng, am a generous expert. I will forgive you for your ignorance, just don't expect me to show you how to walk the immortal path!'

Spitefully cursing his dorm mates, Lin Feng, irritated, turned around and pretentiously snorted at the open door.

As he continued on his search for a corner to hide in, he idly thought of the implications of what he had already found and theorized about the "Spirit World".

If... the spiritual power mentioned in the game is really what he thinks it is, what did it mean for his future, from now on?

More importantly, this game and the dungeons...

. . .

Are they related to each other?_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Morning, of the next day.

Lin Feng had just picked up a delivery for him and come back to his room with it. Fatty and monkey were still sleeping, and the fourth dormmate was probably still sleeping with whichever girl he was shacking up with, this week. With a pair of scissors, he got to work on tearing open his parcel to unveil the smooth and glossy black helmet within. Grabbing the oddly extremely thin instruction booklet, he read the instructions, put on the helmet, laid down on his bed, and started the set-up process.

[Loading... Complete!]

With those words, Lin Feng suddenly felt a connection between his soul and the helmet, followed by an odd suction-like feeling dragging his consciousness elsewhere.

[Welcome, User! New user detected, please create a new account immediately!]

Opening his eyes that he didn't realize he had closed, Lin Feng found himself standing in a blank white space with no visible markings or end in sight. Finished with looking around for now, he refocused on the new notification and proceeded to fill out his new account information.

[Account registration complete! Welcome, "Ye Feng"!]

[Apps]

[Decorations]

[Account]

[Friends]

[Options]

. . .

Huh.

Lin Feng pondered on whether to change the blank white or to continue to the game, first.

. . .

No, he should go to the game, first...

[Apps -

Spirit World]

[Spirit World selected, loading... ]

And with that, his vision darkens and shifts again, until the sight of an entire planet fills his sight. Almost exactly like Earth, were it not for the floating continents, countless natural-like almost moon-sized satellites, unnatural phenomena like wide glow-y towering lights all over the world, and colossal creatures that must've been dozens of kilometers long, wide, or tall travelling across the land, sea, and sky.

[Spirit World will be available for online play in 2:01:33]

[Would you like to start the tutorial?]

[Yes / Yes]

[Tutorial start-up!]

[Before any good godling begins their journey, you should gain an understanding of yourself, first! Please look upon your "Status Panel"!]

[Name: Ye Feng

Affiliation: Earth-Human, Little Goddess

Title: None

Soul: Tier-3

Stats: Strength 1 Vitality 1 Agility 1 Intelligence 1 Spirit 1

Coin: 3 coins/min]

[This is your Status Panel, the basics of your body and soul! Don't worry, those numbers may be low now, but you can raise those quickly enough! There are other basic functions available for perusal, but you can look those up at your own leisure. Finally, it is recommended all players look up the store and see if there is anything you wish to buy before investing any coins elsewhere.

Good luck! You'll need it.]

'Uh...' With all the notifications thrown at his face, Lin Feng could only continue to blankly stare on, unable to read any of the rapid-fire panels of information. However, when he could finally re-focus and begin to take in the notifications in front of him, there was one glaring problem rearing up in his mind.

He couldn't read the language the text was written in, but... he could understand the meaning behind the words completely and perfectly.

Just like the language the dungeons used. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Master."

"Xiao Nü?"

"An anomaly has appeared in Spirit World."

"Is it the Invaders?"

"No, master. A tier-3 human soul has entered the game, with an odd tinge of what appears to be temporal or spatial imbalance with the World."

. . .

"Are you telling me someone travelled through time and space... to play our game?"